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But if the State is fierce when it comes to avenging an attack on its power, it brings less passion in the condemnation [vindicte] of private crimes, which little by little made it ashamed to apply the death penalty. Gone are the days when the executioner, dressed in red, showed his person behind the king: he is no longer the second personage of the State, he is no longer the “living miracle” as he was called by Joseph de Maistre; he has become the shame of society and does not even allow himself to be known by his name. Men have been seen blowing off their right hands so as not to be forced to serve as executioners. In many countries where the death penalty still exists, people are beheaded, hanged and garroted only inside prisons. Finally, in several countries, the death penalty has been abolished; for more than a hundred years the blood of the decapitated no longer fouls the soil of Tuscany, and Switzerland is one of the nations which have had the honor of burning the scaffold. And now it would be ashamed to restore it! Switzerland has really little concern for her glory. Before it adopts the restoration of the death penalty, let it at least be proven that the countries where there are fewer crimes are those where the penalty is the most terrible!
Elisée Reclus, 1879
Its been anounced that the United States government intends to livestream the execution Nidal Hasan, found guilty of the deadly shootings at Fort Hood in 2009. Not to be confused with the 2014 shootings.
This disgusting news has met with what seems to be universal disgust. Even overtly pro-Trump social media users have been vocal in dissenting over this case.
It remains to be seen whether this will happen, the date for execution by firing squad is set for the 3rd of December.
I should be happy to see a surge of opposition to naked acts of state violence and I am. But that feeling is tempered with frustration. If shooting a paralysed man to death is too horrible to watch surely it follows that it shouldn't be done?
I oppose the death penalty in every and all cases and circumstances. Typically opposition to an execution revolves around one of two pillars, the potential innocence of the to be executed or focusing on some point of sympathy via an appeal to mitigating curcumstances. In Nidal Hasan's case the innocence angle is off the table, the weight of evidence is considerable and Hasan has confessed to carrying out the actions he's accused of. Regarding mitigating circumstances Hasan fairs a bit better but not by much. I've seen some speculation that Hasan was not of sound mind and a few commentaries emphasising Hasan's paralysis as a result of the shootout he started, but neither is finding much traction with the general public. I could make a play for sympathy by using a photo of Hasan in a wheelchair or his highschool photo that's on his wiki page but instead I've chosen one of his photos while an active service member.
Personally, while I understand why death penalty abolitionists put much of their organising into these two attack vectors I think it misses the mark. Executing fellow human beings should never be allowed to happen, even in the make believe sci-fi future society that has a 100% no mistakes conviction rate, and the ham-fisted attempt to turn Nidal Hasan into an example is the best example I can think of to demonstrate this.
Executions don't just harm the condemned, they harm us all. Do you know who witnesses the executions that aren't public? Prison officials, they have to not only watch human beings die they also know they are complicit to a degree in the killing. And if you think that's no big deal then you haven't been paying attention.
Lawyer Noguchi recounted an execution, describing in detail how with one pull of the lever, the body of the inmate was dropped through the hatch.
He had to grab the rope to stop it from shaking.
The experience impacted him deeply, with those around him saying he looked pale.
He later resigned from his role as a prison officer.
Governments and charities spend fortunes trying to help military veterans deal with the trauma they experienced killing or just winessing killing and thats the profession that society actively valorises. Screws not so much. Incidentally Nidal Hasan's role in the military was as an army psychiatrist and his tasks involved supporting servicemembers in dealing with their traumas. If the Fort Hood mass shooting in 2009 tells us anything its that military life is corrosive to all involved in it and how difficult it is to repair the damage.
The taking of human life is seen as one of the greatest crimes we can commit, and yet we have multiple professions were it is expected that killing is part of the job. This is a contradiction. Knee jerk responses to this logical formula all revolve around the "They broke the law/they had it coming".
Okay, let's concede that the condemned have committed truly vile acts, that doesn't explain why it becomes permitted or even just when sanctioned by a governing institution.
It ultimately boils down legitimacy. Chopping an ex-lovers head off is iligimate and worthy of punishment whereas chopping the head off a traitor in the town square is legitimate and worthy of status. Legitimacy is a tricky thing, it presents itself as natural but its arbitrary and the death penalty exposes this fact.
The majority of the nations of the world st present do not execute people. And of the remainder the why and the how is markedly different, some use one method, others use several, and most carry them out away from the public. The United States used to be one of those nations, that is why this announcement has proved so controversial its legitimacy exposed as arbitrary and self serving.
The Trump administration has struggled with legitimacy, as shown by this out of the blue announcement and the lack of preparation for the war against Iran. A almost unique mix of pigheaded self assurance and naked pettiness has exposed that much of the logic of society we all take for granted is artificial and built to serve the ends of others.
If you're appalled by this decision to turn the killing of a human into a form of entertainment that's good, you have what little support I can muster, just find sometime once the initial wave of disgust ends to ask yourself why this in particularly is what's making you so uncomfortable.
I'll finish with an extract from George Orwell's account of a hanging.
It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive. All the organs of his body were working --bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming--all toiling away in solemn foolery. His nails would still be growing when he stood on the drop, when he was falling through the air with a tenth of a second to live. His eyes saw the yellow gravel and the grey walls, and his brain still remembered, foresaw, reasoned--reasoned even about puddles. He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the same world; and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone--one mind less, one world less.
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